Method for causing computer to display page view on display area by converting HTML page into new HTML pages, and non-transitory computer readable media recording program

ABSTRACT

A simple and easy-to-use method is provided for dividing an html page at positions intended by the designer in accordance with the type of display device on which the page is to be displayed. A controller searches an html page for comment statements that have been formed according to predetermined grammatical rules and inserted in advance into the html page coding, divides the html page at positions at which the comment statements are found to have been inserted, restores to each divided html page the attribute data lost due to the division process, and generates the new html pages.

This application is based on and claims the benefit of priority fromJapanese Patent Application No. 2006-308980, filed on 15 Nov. 2006, thecontent of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method, apparatus, and computerreadable media for converting an html page into new html pages.

2. Related Art

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the predominant method forarranging text and other content in a page view to be displayed on theWWW (World Wide Web). In general, html pages (e.g., webpages) are mostoften displayed on the monitor of a personal computer; however, recentportable devices such as mobile telephones, data terminals such as PDAs(Personal Digital Assistants), office devices such as MFPs(Multi-Function Peripherals) and various other types of devices havebeen enabled to display html pages.

In addition, many systems utilizing html pages for displaying Webapplications or the like in a browser have been developed, among whichthere are numerous examples in which the display device is notrestricted to being of a certain type.

These circumstances present a situation in which various sizes ofdisplay screens are being used, and it can be difficult for a user usinganother type of electronic device with a small display screen to view ornavigate a page designed to be displayed on the monitor of a personalcomputer.

For example, if a page is displayed on the small display screen of anelectronic device, due to the fact that the entire page cannot fitwithin the display area of the small screen, a fine scroll bar isrequired for navigation. Furthermore, the fine scroll bar is notsuitable for use as a touch panel to be operated by finger. In order tofacilitate display on a variety of display devices, one option to beconsidered is that of designing a page for each type of display device;however, that would significantly increase the workload on the designer.

In response to the above-described conditions, a method forautomatically dividing pages according to the size of the display deviceon which they are to be displayed has been proposed. For example, anapparatus for dividing pages according to the size of the displaydevice, and switching between displaying each of the divided pages thattogether constitute the original page has been disclosed. Furthermore, asystem for determining the points at which to divide the page based onthe distance between elements of the content (the integral of the depthof the tag nest) has been disclosed.

However, due to the fact that prior art such as that described above hasthe objective of automating the page division process, it is difficultto reflect the intention of the designer who created the pages regardingthe positions where a page is to be divided. Accordingly, when thedesigner has desired to control the position at which a page is to bedivided, it has been necessary to first understand the arrangement ofthe prior art, and then to repeatedly perform the division in a processof trial and error until a satisfactory result is attained.

Furthermore, when complex calculations are required to derive the pagedivision position, unless there is high-performance processing capacity,it may not be possible to obtain user satisfaction with respect todisplay responsiveness.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has an objective of providing a simple and easy touse method for dividing an html page at positions at which the designerintends the html pages to be divided according to the type (size) of thedisplay device.

More specifically, to realize the above-stated objective, a means suchas the following is provided.

The apparatus according to the present invention is an apparatus forconverting an html page to new html pages. The apparatus searches anhtml page for comment statements that have been composed according topredetermined grammatical rules and inserted in the html page inadvance, divides the html page at the position at which the commentstatement has been inserted, restores to each thus divided html page theattribute data lost due to the division process, and generates the newhtml pages.

In this way, the apparatus according to the pre sent invention iscapable of dividing an html page into a plurality of new html pages inorder to create page views of the pre-divided html page corresponding tothe size of the display area on the target display device bydiscriminating the page division positions from the comment statementscomposed according to predetermined grammatical rules and inserted bythe designer (creator of the html page). It thereby becomes possible todivide pages according to the intention of the designer, andfurthermore, as this is accomplished by way of the simple and easilyperformed means of inserting comment statements, a method that reducesthe burden on the designer can be provided.

Furthermore, because the inserted data are comment statements, browsersor other html processors not supporting the page division processingaccording to the presenting invention are able to read in and displaythe html pages containing the inserted comment statements without anyproblem. Therefore, the designer is able to easily specify page divisionpositions without adversely affecting display devices for which it isnot necessary that the pages be divided in order to be displayed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of an html page displayed on the monitorof a personal computer according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of an html page displayed on the operatingpanel of an electronic device according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 shows html page coding according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of new html pages generated from the htmlpage coding shown in FIG. 1 according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of the configuration of a systemaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 shows a Divided Page Table according to a preferred embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing an overview of a processing sequenceaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an overview of a processing sequenceaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 shows the details of the processing for dividing an html pageinto two new html pages according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 13 shows an example of an html page prior to the subjection thereofto the division processing according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 14 shows an example of the html page coding of a pre-divided htmlpage into which a division processing comment statement has beeninserted according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 shows an example of the html page coding of two new html pagescreated by dividing a single html page according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 shows examples of comment statements according to a preferredembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 17 shows an example of comment statements according to anotherpreferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Hereinafter preferred embodiments of the present invention are describedwith reference to the attached drawings.

Display Examples

FIGS. 1 to 4 show an example of an html page displayed on differentdisplay devices in both the pre-division and post-division statesaccording to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and areused in explaining the outline of the present invention.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show the views of the same html page displayed on themonitor of a personal computer and on the operation panel of anelectronic device, respectively. In the case of display on the monitorof the personal computer, there is ample space in the display area todisplay all of the page elements on one screen; however, on theoperation panel of the electronic device, due to insufficient space inthe display area thereof, it is only possible to display a portion ofthe page elements.

Therefore, according to the current embodiment of the invention, asshown in FIG. 3, a predetermined keyword (<!--Small Break-->) isinserted into the html page coding, and the page is divided at theposition of the insertion thereof. The keyword is normally processed asa comment statement; however, according to the apparatus of the currentembodiment, a predetermined character string is discriminated (e.g.,“Small Break”), and the page division process described below carriedout.

It should be noted that the comment statement (keyword) is user defined,and can be used by the designer to set the page division positionaccording to the size of the display area. In this manner, it therebybecomes possible to provide a page division method that is moreefficient and more effective in comparison to automatic page divisionmethods.

FIG. 4 shows the new html pages generated from the html page codingshown in FIG. 3 containing the inserted comment statement. Here, thesingle html page shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2 has been divided into two newhtml pages.

The first of the new html pages contains an active “Next” button thatwas not present in the pre-divided page, and when it is detected thatthe user has clicked on the “Next” button, the display transitions tothe next page. On the second new page, which is the destination page ofthe transition initiated by clicking on the “Next” button from the firstnew page, there is an active “Back” button; in the same manner as forthe “Next” button, upon detection that the user has clicked on the“Back” button, the display transitions to the first new page. In thismanner, by switching the display between a plurality of new html pages,the user is able to browse the content of the plurality of divided pagesthat together constitute that of the single pre-divided page, whichwould have required scrolling to view the entirety of the contentthereof due to the fact that its size exceeded that of the availabledisplay area.

System Configuration

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of the configuration of a system 1according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

A controller 10 receives a request from a panel display portion 21 of anoperation panel 20 or a browser 31 of a remote PC (Personal Computer) 30to display a page, and transmits the corresponding html page coding inorder to display the page.

The controller 10 includes a framework portion 11, a divided viewmanaging portion 12, a view converting portion 13, a temporary storageportion 14, and a view generating portion 15. The framework portion 11includes a communication mechanism 111, a branching control mechanism112, and a container mechanism 113. The container mechanism 113 issuesrequests to the view generating portion 15 to obtain application displaydata, which is in the form of html page coding. Here, the viewgenerating portion 15 may be a software application provided with anhtml generating portion 151 and a processing portion 152, and may beconfigured as an information processing apparatus (e.g., a server)separate from the controller 10.

The communication mechanism 111 receives requests from the operationpanel 20, the remote PC 30 or the like, and sends responses thereto.Here, the operation panel 20 and controller 10 may be contained in thesame housing, or may be connected across a network, as in the case ofthe remote PC 30.

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) identifying the application view ispassed from the panel display portion 21 (or the browser 31) to thecommunication mechanism 111. The communication mechanism 111 convertsthe URL to an internal expression format, as required, and passes thedata to the branching control mechanism 112. Here, along with the URL,the communication mechanism 111 may pass various types of parameterdata, such as data identifying the type (size) of the panel displayportion 21. The branching control mechanism 112 then passes the URL andparameters to the container mechanism 113.

The container mechanism 113 determines which application is to be calledbased on the URL and parameters, and passes the parameters to the viewgenerating portion 15. In this way, the html page coding generated bythe application is received by the container mechanism 113, and passedto the branching control mechanism 112.

The branching control mechanism 112 passes the html page coding to thedivided view managing portion 12, and the divided view managing portion12 carries out the html page coding division process described below,utilizing the view converting portion 13 and the temporary storageportion 14. Then, under the control of the branching control mechanism112, the divided html page coding is suitably read out and sent via thecommunication mechanism 111 to the panel display portion 21 (or thebrowser 31), and displayed.

Here, the controller 10 is an information processing apparatus (CPU) formanipulating and processing information, and controls the entireapparatus according to the current embodiment. The controller 10operates the above-described hardware by suitably reading out andexecuting each type of program stored in the memory portion, realizingeach type of functionality according to the present invention.

The memory portion includes local memory for use in combination with thecontroller 10 for executing programs, large volume bulk memory, andcache memory for use performing search operations of said bulk memoryefficiently. Types of memory that can be used to implement the computerreadable media include electrical, electromagnetic, magnetic, optical,or electromagnetic memory. More specifically, the types includesemiconductor memory apparatuses, electromagnetic tapes, magnetic disks,random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), optical disks, andthe like.

Division Process Flow

FIGS. 6 to 8 are flow charts showing the processing flow according to apreferred embodiment of the present invention. First, FIG. 6 is a flowchart describing the flow of the processing for dividing an html page.

In Step S105, the communication mechanism 111 receives the parametersand the URL specifying the requested html page from the operation panel20 or the remote PC 30.

In Step 110, the container mechanism 113 obtains the html page codingfrom the view generating portion 15, based on the URL and parametersreceived in Step 105. In conventional systems, the html page coding issent via the communication mechanism 111 to the operation panel 20 orthe PC 30; however, according to the current embodiment, by providingthe branching control mechanism 112, the html page coding is branchedoff to be subjected to division processing.

In Step S115, the view converting portion 13 sets the warning flag toON, and provides for displaying a warning message if the divisionprocessing fails.

In Step S120, the view converting portion 13 searches out predeterminedcomment statements included in the html page coding obtained in Step110. Then, a determination is made as to whether or not the conditionscontained in each comment statement that is found match the size of thedisplay area (Step S125), and the html page is divided at the positionof each comment statement having conditions that match the size of thedisplay area (Step S130).

Here, as an example of a comment statement, the size of the display area(of the panel display 21, the browser 31, etc.) may be categorized intoa predetermined number of sizes, e.g., “small”, medium”, and “large”,and the division position specified according to the three categories,as shown in FIG. 16.

In the example shown in FIG. 16, the attribute “area” is read out fromcomment statements including the keyword “Small Break”, and the htmlpage is divided at the positions of the comment statements having theattribute value corresponding to the size of the display area, whichhave been passed as a parameter (e.g., “small”). It should be noted thata detailed explanation of the division process is described below, withreference to FIGS. 12 to 15.

With reference to FIG. 16, if the display area is “small”, for example,the view converting portion 13 divides the html page into three new htmlpages: A, B+C, and D. Furthermore, if the display area is “medium”, thehtml page is divided into two new html pages: A+B and C+D. Moreover, ifthe display area is “large”, the html page does not require dividing andis displayed as a single page: A+B+C+D.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 17, a pixel number range can be set as aconditional expression by an attribute such as “height” or the like. Inthe example shown in FIG. 17, the display area size is categorized basedon the threshold values “300”, “480”, and “600”, and the divisionposition determined.

In the case in which the size of the display area is greater than orequal to “300” and less than “480”, for example, the html page isdivided into three new html pages: A, B+C, and D. Furthermore, if thesize of the display area is greater than or equal to “480” and less than“600”, the html page is divided into two new html pages: A+B and C+D.Moreover, if the size of the display area is greater than or equal to“600”, the html page does not require dividing and is displayed as asingle page: A+B+C+D.

Here, if the size of the display area is less than “300”, the page isnot divided at the position of any of the comment statements containedin the html page coding, and the page is not displayed; alternatively, awarning screen may be displayed.

In this manner, by specifying an attribute described in the commentstatements, view converting portion 13 performs the division processing.Here, attribute specification may be for a plurality of attributesgrouped together. At that time, if the size of the display area issmaller than the size of the specified conditions, either the page isnot displayed or a warning message is displayed. Furthermore, if thesize of the display area is larger than that specified in theconditions, the page is not divided.

In Step S135, the view converting portion 13 compares the conditionsspecified in the comment statement and the size of the display area. Ifthe size specified in the conditions contained in the comment statementis larger than that of the display area, the processing proceeds to StepS145; if smaller, the processing proceeds to Step S140.

In Step S140, the view converting portion 13 sets the warning flag toOFF because either the division process performed in Step S130 has beencompleted successfully, or the size of the display area is large enoughthat division of the page is not necessary (NO determination in StepS135 returns).

In Step S145, the view converting portion 13 determines whether or notthe html page coding has been searched to the end for commentstatements; if there is still a possibility for further divisions to bemade (in the case of NO), the processing returns to Step S120 andrepeats the page division process. On the other hand, if the commentstatement search has been completed, the processing proceeds to StepS150 when the required page division processing is completed.

In Step S150, the view converting portion 13 stores the html page codingof each of the divided html pages in the temporary storage portion 14.At that time, the html page coding each of the new html pages containscorrelation data correlating the reciprocal relationships therebetween.Alternatively, the correlation data may be stored in the temporarystorage portion 14. The divided view managing portion 12 determines thesequential relationship between each of the new html pages (the displayorder), whereby it becomes possible to select the suitable page fordisplaying.

As to the variation of storing the correlation data in the temporarymemory portion 14, a Divided Page Table such as that shown in FIG. 9 canbe used, for example. Here, the sequence numbers (the values shown inthe Order field) together with the divided html pages (the pages shownin the New Pages field), and the input values (the values shown in theInput Data field) for the form elements appearing on each of the pagesare stored with respect to the pre-divided html page (the page shown inthe Input Page field).

In Step S155, the divided view managing portion 12 determines whetherthe warning flag is ON or OFF; if it is determined to be ON, displaydata representing a warning message is generated in Step S160.

If there is no warning, the display may be carried out normally;therefore, in step S165, the divided view managing portion 12 selectsthe first divided page (html page coding) stored in the temporarystorage portion 14, and sends the html page coding to the branchingcontrol mechanism 112. Continuing, the branching control mechanism 112sends the selected page to the display portion (the panel display 21 orthe browser 31) via the communication mechanism 111, and displays thepage.

In Step S170, the divided view managing portion 12 determines whether ornot the pre-divided html page generated by the view generating portion15 contains an input form or not. If an input form is included in thehtml page coding it signifies that data is to be received from the user,and the processing, therefore, proceeds to number 2 in FIG. 8; if thereis no input form, the processing proceeds to number 1 in FIG. 7.

Display Switching Process Flow

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of the process of switchingbetween the divided pages when the pages consist solely of pagescontaining no input form elements therein.

In Step S205, the branching control mechanism 112 determines whether ornot the page request data passed from the communication mechanism 111indicates a page transition to a divided page. More specifically, byembedding the data representing the page transition destination in the“Next” or “Back” buttons shown in FIG. 4, for example, the page requestdata can be discriminated from the content of the URL. When it has beendetermined that a transition is to be a transition to a divided page,the URL data of the page is passed to the divided view managing portion12, and the processing proceeds to Step S210.

In Step S210, the divided view managing portion 12 identifies thedestination divided page, and causes the new page to be displayed bysending the identified page to the display portion via the communicationmechanism 111. More specifically, the corresponding new html page isselected, for example, from the data included in the URL that indicatesthe transition destination page. Alternatively, the destination page canbe identified by a request for transition relative to a present pagethat has been obtained by referring to a Cookie (e.g., if the “Next”button is clicked on from the page having the sequence number 2, thedestination page is the page having sequence number 3).

In Step S215, upon determining that the page request from the userreceived in Step S205 is not for a transition to a divided page but to aseparate URL, the branching control mechanism 112 terminates the displayof the divided page and deletes the divided page data. Morespecifically, the corresponding data in the Divided Page Table (FIG. 9)is deleted, and the processing halted.

FIG. 10 shows an overview of a processing sequence. In response to apage request from the communication mechanism 111, the branching controlmechanism 112 receives the page data (html page coding) via thecontainer mechanism 113. Furthermore, in response to a page transitionrequest from the communication mechanism 111, the branching controlmechanism 112 transmits the corresponding page data (new html pagecoding).

Here, the branching control mechanism 112 determines whether the requestfrom the communication mechanism 111 is for a transition to a dividedpage or a transition to a separate page (i.e. a new URL), and thereuponperforms the branching processing, which consists of either selectingthe corresponding divided page from the temporary storage portion 14 orrequesting the separate page to the container mechanism 113.

Input Reception Process Flow

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of the process of switchingbetween divided pages occurring when the divided pages contain formelements therein for receiving input data from a user.

In Step S305, the branching control mechanism 112 determines whether ornot the finalization of the input data for the form elements included ina divided page has been received. More specifically, the branchingcontrol mechanism 112 makes the determination from data that representsa redirect or the like transmitted upon the clicking on of a link suchas a “Send” button by the user, for example, and the processing proceedsto Step S310.

In Step S310, the divided view managing portion 12 determines whether ornot the present page is the last page in the group of divided pagesstored in the temporary storage portion 14. More specifically, thedetermination can be made, for example, based on whether or not thesequence number of the divided page is the greatest value found in theDivided Page Table (FIG. 9). Alternatively, the determination can bemade by receiving data indicating that the page is the last pagetogether with a POST message. If the page is determined to be the lastpage, the processing proceeds to Step S325; if the last page has not yetbeen reached, the processing proceeds to Step S315.

In Step S315, the divided view managing portion 12 stores the finalizedinput data in the temporary storage portion 14. More specifically, thefinalized input data can be stored, for example, in the Input Data fieldof the Divided Page Table (FIG. 9). In the case that the last page hasnot yet been reached, because the input data is only a portion of thedata that is required in the pre-divided html page, it cannot be sent tothe application (the view generating portion 15) as is. Therefore, untilthe input of all of the input data has been completed, the portion ofinput data received from each respective divided page is storedtemporarily.

In Step S320, the divided view managing portion 12 selects the dividedpage (new html page) that follows the divided page for which the inputdata has been finalized, and causes the selected page to be displayed onthe display portion via the communication mechanism 111. For pagescontaining form elements for receiving input data from users, it isdesirable that the divided pages are displayed in order without skippingany pages, and that the input data is received from each page.Accordingly, the divided view managing portion 12 selects the next pageto be displayed from the Divided Page Table (FIG. 9) according to thesequence number. Then, the processing returns to Step S305, and theframework portion 11 continues with the reception of the input data.

In Step S325, the divided view managing portion 12 combines the inputdata stored for each of the divided pages, and reconstitutes therefromthe input data corresponding to the pre-divided html page.

In Step S330, the container mechanism 113 transmits the input datareconstituted in Step S325 to the application (the view generatingportion 15), whereby the next html page is received (redirected).

It should be noted that the divided view managing portion 12 may deletethe divided page data (divided html page coding, input data, etc.)stored in the temporary storage portion 14 after the redirection hasbeen completed, as the information is thereby no longer required.

FIG. 11 shows an overview of a processing sequence. Upon reception of apage request from the communication mechanism 111, the branching controlmechanism 112 receives the page data (html page coding) via thecontainer mechanism 113. Furthermore, in response to receivingnotification that the input data has been finalized (e.g., a POSTmessage) from the communication mechanism 111, the branching controlmechanism 112 transmits the data for each of the divided pages (new htmlpage coding) in order.

At this time, the input data for each divided page (V1, V2, V3) isstored sequentially to finally reconstitute a POST data V, which servesas the POST data that is provided to the application (view generatingportion 15) as parameter data.

Division Processing Details

FIG. 12 shows the details of the division processing for dividing anhtml page into two html pages according to a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention.

Here, the division position has been set within the Table elements inthe pre-divided html page coding. When an html page is to be dividedinto new html pages, the attribute values described only in the upperportion above the division position (e.g., the Form attribute value Fa,the Table attribute value Ta, etc.) of the html page coding are alsorequired for generating the new html page that is to be formed from thelower portion of the html page coding of the pre-divided page.

Furthermore, there are also cases in which the respective attributevalues for the upper and the lower portions of the html page codingchange due to changes in the configuration. In this case, by providingattribute values that have been suitably modified (e.g., Form attributevalue Fa′, Fa″, and Table attribute value Ta), as required, the htmlpage coding for the divided html pages which have been made capable ofbeing displayed as new html pages is generated. Here, rules forconverting the attribute values may be stored in advance, and read outand used as conversion rules corresponding to tag names and attributenames.

FIG. 13 shows a specific example of a page, the division process ofwhich is explained below. There are two text boxes in the page shown inFIG. 13, and the page will be divided into two new pages each containingtherein one of the text boxes.

FIG. 14 shows the html page coding for generating the html page shown inFIG. 13. Two text boxes are arranged as two lines <tr> (23 and 25 inFIG. 14) in the <table>, and the comment statement 24 is insertedtherebetween to specify that the page is to be divided at that position.Furthermore, a “Send” button and a “Reset” button (26 in FIG. 14) arearranged on the third line; clicking on the “Send” button finalizes thedata that has been input as input data to the text boxes, and transmitsthe input data to the application.

FIG. 15 shows the html page coding for two new html pages generated bydividing the html page coding shown in FIG. 14. The form elementincluding the two text boxes has been divided (23 and 25 in FIG. 15)into two new html pages.

The <table> tag (22 in FIG. 15) may be of the same layout afterdivision, so the same attribute value Ta as that shown in FIG. 13 isalso used in the html page coding shown in FIG. 15; however, theattribute values of the <form> tag (number 21 in FIG. 14, and numbers 21a, and 21 b in FIG. 15) have been converted to Fa′ and Fa″. Here, theattribute “name” has been derived from the original “form1”, and toagain make it distinguishable, consecutive numbers have been appendedthereto (e.g., “form1.001”, “form2.002”). Furthermore, for the attributevalues of the attribute “action”, in order to facilitate transitionbetween the divided pages, the URL described in Fa′ indicates the nextdivided page, and the URL described in Fa″ is left as the originalredirect destination.

In this manner, by having the transition destination set by the “action”attribute, when the clicking of the “Send” button by the user isreceived, the next divided page, which is the transition destination, isidentified and the transition is carried out. Here, the “Send” and“Reset” buttons may both be present on each of the divided pages: copythe same coding content to the html page coding of each divided page(number 26 in FIG. 15).

As a result, the html page coding shown in FIG. 14 is divided so as toform two separate new html pages, each containing a single text box, andby providing as supplementary the <form> tag, the <table> tag, the<input> tag and the like, each page can be displayed as a separate htmlpage with the same page view.

As described above, the controller 10 is an apparatus for converting anhtml page into new html pages. The controller 10 searches an html pagefor comment statements that have been formed according to predeterminedgrammatical rules and inserted in advance into the html page coding,divides the html page at positions at which comment statements are foundto have been inserted, restores to each divided html page the attributedata lost due to the division process, and generates the new html pages.

It thereby becomes possible for the controller 10 to divide an html pageinto a plurality of html pages in order to create page viewscorresponding to the size of the display area of a display portion bydiscriminating the page division positions from the comment statementsformed according to predetermined grammatical rules and inserted by thedesigner (the creator of the html page). Therefore, html pages can bedivided according to the intention of the designer; furthermore, as thisis accomplished by way of the simple and easily performed means ofinserting comment statements, a method that reduces the burden of thedesigner can be provided.

In addition, because the inserted data is comment statements, browsersor other html processors not supporting the page division processingaccording to the present invention are able to read in and display thehtml pages containing the inserted comment statements without anyproblem. Therefore, the designer is able to easily specify page divisionlocations in an html page without adversely affecting the display of thepage on display devices for which it is not necessary that the page bedivided in order to be displayed.

Furthermore, the controller 10 stores identification data identifyingthe size of the display area of a display portion, and searches outcomment statements containing the identification data.

It thereby becomes possible for the controller 10 to discriminate thetype of the display device (the type of the size of the display areathereof) from the description contained in the page division commentstatements, whereby it becomes possible to provide divided pagescorresponding to a plurality of respective display devices.

Furthermore, the controller 10 searches out the comment statements thatcontain the conditions satisfied by the stored identification data.

According to a configuration such as that described above, the pagedivision comment statements can contain conditional expressionsrepresenting the range of the size of the display area, and thecontroller 10 is capable of discriminating the conditional expressions.In this manner, it becomes possible to provide a universally applicablepage dividing method based on the size of the display area on which thepage is to be displayed.

Furthermore, in the event that the size of the display area representedby the stored identification data is smaller than that described in anyof the comment statements present in the html page coding, thecontroller 10 generates warning data representing a warning message.

According to a configuration such as that described above, in the eventthat the controller 10 is unable to find a suitable division position inthe html page coding, and the size of the available display area wouldbe insufficient to accommodate the page even if displayed, thecontroller 10 is able to cause a warning to be displayed. It therebybecomes possible to inform the user that there are items contained inthe page that would not be capable of being displayed in the availabledisplay area, and also to provide an opportunity for modifying thedesign of the html page.

Furthermore, the controller 10 does not divide the html page if no pagedivision comment statements are found.

According to a configuration such as that described above, if thecontroller 10 is unable to find a suitable page division position in thehtml page coding, the html page is displayed in its original, undividedstate. In this way, the page view is not disfigured by unnecessarydivision of the page if the size of the display area of the targetdisplay area is adequate or the target display device is a displaydevice for which the use thereof has not been foreseen.

Furthermore, together with the html page coding for the newly generatedhtml pages, the controller 10 stores correlation data correlatingreciprocal relationships therebetween, inserts at least one link intoeach of the new html pages to facilitate the referencing of the new htmlpages with respect to the reciprocal relationships therebetween, refersto the stored correlation data in response to the reception of theselection of a link, and selects the corresponding new html page.

It thereby becomes possible for the controller 10 to correlatereciprocal relationships between the new html pages, and to transit tothe corresponding new html page. In other words, because a pagetransition can be caused by selecting one of the links (e.g., a “Next”button, “Back” button, or the like) added to the divided pages, it ispossible to check each of the items of content contained in thepre-divided page numerous times, without missing any of the contentthereof.

Furthermore, the controller 10 associates with each of the new htmlpages discrimination data identifying each of the new html pages andstores the discrimination data, inserts into each of the new html pagesthe discrimination data representing the page to which a transition isto be made so as to facilitate transition between the new html pages ina predetermined order, and selects the new html page corresponding tothe discrimination data in response to the reception of a request for atransition.

It thereby becomes possible for the controller 10 to display the dividedpages in a predetermined order by changing to the respective dividedpage indicated by a redirect initiated by the clicking on a link such asa “Send” button, for example, provided for transitioning between thedivided pages in order. For example, if the pre-divided page is a pagecontaining a form that includes input items, due to the fact that itthereby becomes necessary to distribute the input items over a pluralityof divided pages to gather all of the input data included in thepre-divided page, by transitioning between the divided pages in anorderly fashion, the input data can be received without missing anyitems thereof.

Furthermore, the controller 10 stores the input data for the formelements included in each of the new html pages, assembles the inputdata, and reconstitutes the input data as the input data correspondingto the pre-divided html page.

It thereby becomes possible for the controller 10 to temporarily storethe input data for the form elements distributed across the plurality ofdivided pages for each of the respective divided pages, to reconstitutethe data at the stage in which the input for all of the divided pageshas been received, and to treat the reconstituted data as the input datacorresponding to the pre-divided html page. Therefore, even in the caseof a page containing form elements requiring user input, it is possiblefor the controller 10 to divide the page without losing any of theoriginal functionality thereof.

Furthermore, the present invention may be realized as a method forcausing a computer to convert an html page to new html pages. The methodsearches an html page for comment statements that have been formedaccording to predetermined grammatical rules and inserted in advanceinto the html page coding, divides the html page at positions at whichthe comment statements are found to have been inserted, restores to eachdivided html page attribute data lost due to the division process, andgenerates the new html pages.

According to a configuration such as that described above, by having acomputer execute the method, the same results as those described abovecan be expected.

Furthermore, the present invention may be realized as acomputer-readable media recording a program for causing the conversionof an html page to new html pages in a computer. The program searches anhtml page for comment statements that have been formed according topredetermined grammatical rules and inserted in advance into the htmlpage coding, divides the html page at positions at which the commentstatements are found to have been inserted, restores to each dividedhtml page attribute data lost due to the division process, and generatesthe new html pages.

According to a configuration such as that described above, by having acomputer execute the program, the same results as those described abovecan be expected.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for causing a computer to display a pageview on a display area by converting an html page into new html pages,comprising: receiving by the computer an html page for conversion;determining by the computer a display area of a display for displayingthe html page; causing the computer to store in a memory anidentification data identifying a size of the display area; causing thecomputer to search out comment statements that include theidentification data, and have been inserted into the html page coding inadvance, wherein the identification data includes at least one of: i)the size of the display area categorized into a predetermined number ofsizes, and ii) the size of the display area categorized based onthreshold values; causing the computer to divide the html page at adivision position where the comment statements including theidentification data are found to have been inserted, wherein i) awarning data representing a warning message in a case where the size ofthe display area is smaller than the size specified by theidentification data in any of the comment statements present in the htmlpage coding, ii) the html page is not divided in a case where the sizeof the display area is larger than the size specified by theidentification data in any of the comment statements present in the htmlpage coding; and causing the computer to restore to each of the dividedhtml pages an attribute data that has been lost due to dividing the htmlpage to generate the new html pages, wherein the attribute data,including a Form attribute value and a Table attribute value, isdescribed in an upper portion above the division position in the htmlpage coding of pre-divided page, comprising: reading the attribute dataabove the division; copying the attribute data; modifying the attributedata based on preset conversion rules; and inserting the modifiedattribute data in a lower portion below the division position, whereinthe html page coding of pre-divided page includes a <form> tag and a<table> tag, wherein the <table> tag is the same layout after thedivision of the html page, and the same Table attribute value is used inthe new html pages, wherein the <form> tag includes an attribute “name”and an attribute “action”, wherein the attribute “name” is appendedconsecutive numbers, and wherein the attribute “action” describes auniform resource locator (URL) that indicates the html page coding ofnext divided page; and causing the computer to reference the URL, andselect the corresponding new html page.
 2. A method for causing acomputer to convert an html page according to claim 1, wherein thecomputer is caused to not divide the page in a case where no commentstatements are found.
 3. A non-transitory computer readable mediarecording a program that causes a computer to display a page view on adisplay area by converting an html page to new html pages, the programcausing the computer to perform: receiving by the computer an html pagefor conversion; determining by the computer a display area of a displayfor displaying the html page; causing the computer to store in a memoryan identification data identifying a size of the display area; causingthe computer to search searching out comment statements that include theidentification data, and have been inserted into the html page coding inadvance, wherein the identification data includes at least one of: i)the size of the display area categorized into a predetermined number ofsizes, and ii) the size of the display area categorized based onthreshold values: causing the computer to divide the html page at adivision position where the comment statements including theidentification data are found to have been inserted, wherein i) awarning data representing a warning message in a case where the size ofthe display area is smaller than the size specified by theidentification data in any of the comment statements present in the htmlpage coding, ii) the html page is not divided in a case where the sizeof the display area is larger than the size specified by theidentification data in any of the comment statements present in the htmlpage coding; and causing the computer to restore to each of the dividedhtml pages an attribute data that has been lost due to dividing the htmlpage to generate the new html pages, wherein the attribute data,including a Form attribute value and a Table attribute value, isdescribed in an upper portion above the division position in the htmlpage coding of pre-divided page, comprising: reading the attribute dataabove the division; copying the attribute data; modifying the attributedata based on preset conversion rules; and inserting the modifiedattribute data in a lower portion below the division position, whereinthe html page coding of pre-divided page includes <form> tag and a<table> tag, wherein the <table> tag is the same layout after thedivision of the html page, and the same Table attribute value is used inthe new html pages, wherein the <form> tag includes an attribute “name”and an attribute “action”, wherein the attribute “name” is appendedconsecutive numbers, and wherein the attribute “action” describes auniform resource locator (URL) that indicates the html page coding ofnext divided page; and causing the computer to reference the URL, andselect the corresponding new html page.